1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of dynamic monitoring and electric communication, and more particularly, relates to an enhanced non-contact monitoring system formed by the combination of an infrared sensing system and a radar detection system.
2. Description of Related Art
Organisms radiate heat under room temperature, and the heat radiation generated by organisms is within a detectable range of infrared sensing systems; therefore, it is possible to sense the heat radiation generated by various organisms with various types of infrared sensing system. For example, human bodies, animals, plants or even mechanical devices all radiate infrared ray of a certain wavelength. A variety of applications have been derived based on the above phenomena. In day to day life, common applications include communications, anti-theft systems, photography, and detection purposes such as detecting location of human bodies or objects.
Even though the use of an infrared system to detect the location of human body in an indoor space is well known, conventional infrared systems are usually designed to detect a single heat source only. When there are more than two heat sources present in an indoor space, conventional infrared systems are likely to make false judgments. For example, when the interior space is a bathroom, conventional infrared system not only senses the heat radiation from the human body, but also sense the heat radiation from the hot water or steam. When the infrared sensing system is used in such an environment with multiple heat sources, it is likely to make false judgments. As a result, when an accident happens to a user in the bathroom, it is possible for the infrared sensing system to confuse the heat radiation from the hot water or steam with the heat radiation from the human body, thus losing the purpose of timely detecting emergency situations.
On the other hand, a radar detection system detects movement of an object by sending a radar detection signal to an area. If the object is present in the area and is in the state of motion, the properties of the radar reflection signal reflected by the surface of the object would change accordingly, e.g. reflection time, phase and etc.; therefore, the radar detection system is able to effectively detect the movement of the object in the area without being affected by heat radiation.
Although the use of radar detection systems to detect motion changes of human bodies in an indoor space is well known, conventional radar detection systems can only determine the changes in motion with the reflection distance of the radar signal. Under such circumstances, there is a possibility that the result can be deviated by foreign objects, which will further result in erroneous alarm signal, or result in not sending out alarm signal in time, and thus resulting in failing to notify the detection of emergency situations.
Therefore, for non-contact monitoring systems, there is an urgent need to develop a system that combines the advantages of the infrared sensing system and the radar detections system. Such a combined system can detect the location of the organism and the change in motion of the organism while avoiding the disadvantages of using only the infrared sensing system or the radar detection system; in addition, the radar detection system can be used to detect the vital signs information of the organism.